50 Greatest Soap Couples: #34 Clint & Viki From ONE LIFE TO LIVE

STORY:
Upon learning he was dying, Viki's husband, Joe Riley, hired Clint to become editor of their newspaper, The Banner. Viki and Clint clashed following Joe's death but as time went on the two began to warm up to each other. Eventually they fell in love and were finally married in 1982. They would divorce and re-marry again in the '80s as a string of complications continued to cause conflict as they faced interference from people like Mitch Laurence (as well as Viki's other personalities), not to mention Viki going to heaven, time traveling, the Old West and so much more. By the end of the series on ABC in 2012, verDorn was playing Clint, who proposed to Viki on the final episode.

IMPACT:
Clint was the first Buchanan to join ONE LIFE TO LIVE and that family as well as the one he built with Viki would impact storylines for the rest of the show's run. Their relationship shifted in tone many times over the years but no matter how much conflict they faced (or how "out there" some of the stories may have been) they always entertained.

Clint and Viki were nominated as Favorite Super Couple: Daytime at the 1989 Soap Opera Digest Awards. Erika Slezak was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award nine times in ONE LIFE's final three decades winning six trophies (the most of any actress in daytime history).

Ritchie passed away in 2009 at age 70.

From Patrick Erwin (A THOUSAND OTHER WORLDS): Both characters have had more lives to live, on their own and with other spouses, than most soap couples. But Viki and Clint were always home base for each other. Clint supported Viki through all of the horrifying revelations about her alters; Viki believed in the good in Clint even when he himself thought it was gone for good.

13 comments:

mojomiller, Viki was one of the characters that had so many votes with so many different people (even Dorian!). It has inspired a couple of things: 1) We're going to do a "The Many Loves of..." certain characters at the end of this poll and 2) a Dynamic Duos countdown for the likes of Viki & Dorian and other great pairs from soap history.

Thanks, Patrick. There are SO many examples of Dynamic Duos that were never lovers or romantic (or maybe were at first like AW's Cass and Felicia) but were mostly known as best friends, worst enemies, or some other fun combinations.

I love that these two made the list even if I would have put them higher (like #1) ;-) I've started uploading a playlist of their relationship if you're interested. Clint Ritchie and Erika Slezak were heaven!